By Brad Haire
University of Georgia
A new center wants to show agricultural and land-based ventures
in rural southwest Georgia how to gain economic might by pooling
their resources.
The Southwest Georgia Cooperative Development Center was
established this month through a partnership between the
University of Georgia Center for Agribusiness and Economic
Development and the Golden Triangle RC&D in Blakely, Ga. A
$190,000 U.S. Department of Agriculture grant provided funds.
Incubator
The center is designed to be a co-op incubator. It will help
people in southwest Georgia organize co-ops to improve their
effectiveness and profits. Successfully doing this will bring
more jobs and income to this rural part of the state, said CAED
coordinator John McKissick.
The center’s office will be in Albany, Ga. It will focus efforts
in nine southwest Georgia counties (Baker, Calhoun, Decatur,
Early, Dougherty, Grady, Miller, Mitchell and Seminole). It will
provide help, though, to groups in other parts of the state.
“A cooperative is a unique business structure for agricultural
producers and landowners to do jointly what they could not do
individually,” McKissick said.
It will enable them to lower costs, increase bargaining power,
expand markets and improve products and services.
With low commodity prices and higher production costs, farmers
and landowners have felt the pinch of a sour U.S. farm economy.
But by pooling resources into a co-op, he said, they can better
weather the bad times and take advantage of good economic
times.
Potential
From crop marketing to hunting, fishing and nature-based
tourism, the potential is great for farm co-ops in Georgia, he
said. They have already proven successful in parts of the
Midwest.
“This is something we’ve been trying to get going in this area
for three years,” said H. Joe Nichols, Golden Triangle RC&D
president. “Now, it’s finally here.”
The center already has an agritourism cooperative established
under its wings. Southwest Georgia Escapes is a nine-member
farmer co-op. It hopes to lure tourists to the area by offering
hunting and fishing trips, nature trails and camping areas.
“It’s getting harder and harder to make a living with just your
row-crop farming,” said Dan Giles, a co-op member who is
offering hunting packages on his family farm in Clay
County. “This is just a way to try and keep our land and make it
work for us.”
A CAED study shows a much higher demand than supply for farm-
and nature-based tourism in Georgia right now.
For information about the center, contact your county UGA
Extension Service offices or go to www.swgacoop.com.
